Greetings all - Long story short, returning to Classic and want to power level a Mage. I’m only level 13 and I’m aiming for AOE leveling at Level 22+ but from levels 13-22, is Int/Stam gear still recommended or +fire/frost damage? I keep reading conflicting information.
Any other tips on busting through the leveling process as Mage?
For aoe farming, Int/Stam, the spell coefficients for aoe spells like Cone of Cold, Flame Strike and Blizzard are so negligible that you need to basically be in raiding gear to see a difference.
spells learned below level 20 also have a penalty, not to mention are also typically faster to cast than their higher level counter-parts, which is another penalty to the coefficient of spellpower to spells, so unless you have a +30sp weapon the difference you’re going to see is negligible.
Even with a +30sp ench weapon you’re still only looking at a difference of about 5 damage per spell because of the penalties.
spell power increases your efficiency of single target spells, it can make your frostbolt go from 1.5 damage per mana to 3 damage/mana or more.
without stamina you are both a free honor kill in the world, and will die to mobs if a single mob resists.
you can go full spellpower and spam frostbolt. you will not need to drink often.
you can go stamina/int and aoe, you will need to drink multiple bottles often.
you can go int and aoe and pray you never get resisted, and drink multiple bottles and food on every pull.
you can go stamina only with mana pots, you will rarely die and be really annoying in pvp, but you will oom if you try aoeing.
my 40 mage can do 140 frostbolts for 44 mana noncrit, and crazy max rank frostbolt crits, but without stamina trying to aoe is not a good idea.
most gear while leveling will not grant enough +spell damage to be worth replacing gear that gives a lot of stamina and int.
go fireball mage till 22, then respec to max rank improved blizzard. dont take the thing that freezes chilled targets. watch jokerd leveling to 60 world first if you want to see technique
Ok, so to be clear, fire/frost spell power isn’t recommended at all for leveling 1-59 right? Basically Int/Stam as a basic rule 1-59
OP, as a mage leveling up, int/Stam will be your 100% priority. Your main priority is to have enough mana to group up and aoe the mobs down and to also have spare Mana for when problems arise like you aggro additional mobs are mobs resist cc or slows. Spellpower is iceing on the cake and should be your last concern at such low levels. Spellpower is a bit better to have than stamina but I wouldn’t go way out of your way to get it.
You use the gear with the most armor, Int, and Stam.